NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit EYESPI BFF for QT Py or Xiao – 18 Pin FPC Connector
Our QT Py boards are a great way to make very small microcontroller projects that pack a ton of power – and now we have a way for you to add a small, colorful, and bright display to any project.
Our most recent display breakouts have come with a new feature: an 18-pin “EYE SPI” standard FPC connector with a flip-top connector. This is intended to be a sort of “STEMMA QT for displays” – a way to quickly connect and extend display wiring that uses a lot of SPI pins. In this case, we need a lot of SPI pins, and we want to be able to use long distances, so we go with an 18-pin 0.5mm pitch FPC.
With such a slim and flexible cable, it’s a perfect matching for our QT Py boards to make extra smol microcontroller boards with big bold colorful displays or power-sipping E-Ink.
Don’t forget you’ll also want an 18-pin EYESPI FPC cable. And, of course, one of our EYESPI displays, too – look for the EYESPI logo on the back to know you’ve got one that can clip in.
- MOSI/MISO/SCK SPI pins are connected to the default SPI port on the QT Py
- SDA/SCL I2C pins are connected to the I2C port on the QT Py headers – some boards have a separate QT Py I2C port, so keep in mind they may be separate busses.
- TFT CS on TX pin – but can be re-configured/disabled by cutting a solder jumper.
- TFT DC on RX pin – but can be re-configured/disabled by cutting a solder jumper.
We also have ‘sometimes used’ pins that can be re-configured/disabled by cutting a solder jumper
- IRQ on A0 pin – Many of our displays don’t use the IRQ pin unless there’s a touchscreen.
- Touch CS on A1 pin – Many of our displays don’t have a touchscreen.
- Memory CS on A2 pin – Only our E-Ink displays have a separate memory SRAM chip, which you may be able to skip using on most QT Py’s.
- SD Card CS on A3 pin – Or use for whatever you like if you aren’t using the SD Card socket on of our display breakouts.
There are also two through-hole solder pads for extra pins that are often considered optional, and we didn’t have any more IO to spare. If you aren’t using any of the 4 pins above or the I2C port, you could wire these two pins with jumper wires as you desire.
- Backlight control – this is default on for most of our displays or unused on E-Ink,
- Display reset – this is default on for most of our displays. Sometimes it’s used for low-power on E-Ink.
We include some header that you can solder to your QT Py. You can also pick up an Itsy Bitsy short female header kit to make it removable but compact; you’ll just need to trim down the headers to 7 pins long.
- Comes as an assembled and tested PCB
- For any QT Py or Xiao boards
QT Py, display, and EYESPI cable are not included.
